In the background art, an optical finder is also provided in a digital camera which stores, on a recording medium, photographic image data obtained by digital processing applied to a photographic image signal outputted from a solid state imaging device. A photographer can look into the finder to visually check the composition of a photographic subject etc. and push a shutter button.
However, a typical digital camera in recent years is not provided with an optical finder but displays a photographic image, which is being taken by a solid state imaging device, on a large-sized liquid crystal display device provided in the back surface of the camera in place of the finder.
In the digital camera of the type in which a live-view image is displayed on the large-sized liquid crystal display device in the back surface of the camera, the photographer needs to look into the camera with his/her face away from the camera in order to check the photographic image. Thus, camera shake occurs easily when the photographer pushes a shutter button. In addition, the live-view image which has been outputted from the solid state imaging device and subjected to image processing is displayed. Therefore, the image cannot help including a slight time lag with respect to an actual state of the photographic subject.
From such a circumstance, many camera fans are hoping for the optical finder to be back. To this end, there has been proposed a digital camera mounted with a finder device which includes a display portion so that an image in which an image displayed on the display portion is superimposed on an optical image obtained through an objective optical system can be observed through an eyepiece window, for example, as described in Patent Literature 1.
In addition, another digital camera of the type in which a live-view image is displayed on the large-sized liquid crystal display device in the back surface of the camera is described in Patent Literature 2 or 3.
In the digital camera described in Patent Literature 2 or 3, an in-focus position, a front focus portion, and a rear focus portion in a photographic subject are determined from an image taken by an imaging device, and results thereof are displayed with different colors on the photographic image displayed on the display device in the back surface of the camera.